Exercise Now!

"I need to lose weight," he said, "but Halloween candy will be coming into the house soon, so I'll wait until after that. Of course, then Thanksgiving is just around the corner and that would just wreck my diet, so I might as well start right after Thanksgiving. Oh wait, what about Christmas, I can't diet during Christmas season, to stressful, then there is Christmas Dinner. I'll wait until New Year's. That's it, it will be my New Year's Resolution to lose weight."

"I'm glad I got that decision out of the way, now I'm going to get some donuts for breakfast. I might as well enjoy my guilty foods now since I'll be dieting soon."

My advice, if you want to lose weight, do it now.

Exercise now.

Eat in a healthy manner now.

There is no moment as powerful as right now.

If you absolutely can not get out from behind a desk right now, make now as soon as possible. You don't have to go and run 5 miles on your lunch break, but you can take a 10 minute walk. You don't have to switch to nothing but grapefruit and salad, but you can pass up fast food for a healthier choice.

Make some small changes to your life. If you eat lousy food from a fast food joint for lunch every day commit to only doing it twice a week and start preparing healthier food to throw in a lunch box. Make sandwiches for lunch or make enough food at supper to have leftovers the next day.

If you don't exercise at all. Do something.

Now.

Add a 30 minute walk to your day 5 days a week. If that seems like too much time, think of it as an investment, you will get the time back with a longer lifespan, not to mention it will reduce stress.

Do 10 pushups in the morning or before bed. If you can't do a pushup, start with wall pushups.

Don't wait until after Halloween/Thanksgiving/Christmas, change small things now.

If you just can't resist Thanksgiving dinner, splurge a little that day, one day is small stuff when you are making small changes in your daily life.

Make some small changes to your diet and your activity level NOW.

Next month, do it again.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

Nathan Sprint Water Bottle

I am the camel of my family. My wife, stepdaughter, daughter, and I all run. For whatever reason, I am the one who can go with the least water on a run. On our recent trail run, of one hour and forty minutes I carried the Nathan Sprint hand held water bottle, and my wife wore the Nathan Speed 4R Energy Belt. We each had enough fluid for the run even though she used three times as much as I did. (Those links go to our local specialty running store, Trax Running for two reasons, they are our local specialty running store and I like to support the locals and they are really awesome there. They have not provided me any compensation whatsoever, I just like them.)

I thought I would review these two products on my blog I'll start with what they share in common, the bottle itself, I'll go into the specifics of the sprint here, then review the Speed 4R in another post.

Nathan Sprint

The bottle is a thick, durable, yet easily squeezable plastic and the shape comfortably fits in my hand. The cap is a "race cap" that has a valve rather than a lid you have to open and close. I really like the way the cap works. There is a built in valve so that water doesn't drip out (even upside down) and when squeezed, I get a shot of water that cuts off immediately when I stop squeezing. This makes it very easy to get a drink while running without breaking stride. There have only been two situations in which I have experienced any leakage from the cap. If I squeeze too long, the bottle shape eventually deforms enough that water can leak around the cap. Once, when using the belt on a trail run, I bent over to adjust my shoe, when I bent all the way over the bottle in front was upside down, and as I reached down to remove debris from my shoe, my body squeezed the bottle. So really it worked the way it was supposed to, I turned it upside down and squeezed it, all over my foot.

The handheld Sprint bottle (let me start by saying that I hate carrying a handheld bottle) is actually very comfortable to carry. And includes an ID card you can fill out with emergency contact information. On one of my family trail runs at Mammoth Cave I carried the Sprint for over an hour on this run. Ordinarily, if I am forced to carry something in my hand, I swap it back and forth between hands pretty regularly, but on this run I was holding the dog's leash in one hand and the water bottle in the other so it stayed in my hand until I emptied it, then I stowed it in the dog's pack.

The plastic of the bottle, the shape of the bottle, and the material in the handstrap were obviously well planned and designed. I had this in my hand for over an hour and for the most part I was able to forget I was carrying it. There was no rubbing, chafing, no hotspots on my hand. I never experienced any sliding or slipping of my grip. The strap is quickly and easily adjusted for fit via a hook and loop fastener. My biggest requirement for carrying a water bottle (other than it has to hold water) is that I need to not be troubled with it. This bottle's design was perfect in that regard. The only adjustment I made on the run was I took it off when I was finished with it. If I had not had Jack along I would have just left it in my hand and forgotten about it.\

So, the nitty gritty.

Pros

Lightweight bottle (it gets lighter as you drink!)

Comfortable in the hand.

No rubbing or chafing.

ID included.

 

Cons

Well, I guess the only con is you do have to carry it.

New Balance Minimus Trail Zero: The Shoe That Broke My Heart

This shoe. I really loved the way this shoe felt on my feet. The sole was so flexible, the footbed so soft and smooth, just enough cushion under foot for rocky trails. It shed water like a duck. I really liked this shoe.

But. . .

Did I mention I really liked this shoe? I took it on its first trail run,    8 1/2 miles at Mammoth Cave National Park, me my wife, our dog, and my new shoes that only had 9 miles of running on them, all on pavement. The trail we were on was a shared use trail also used by horses. If you've never run on horse used trails this can mean some pretty rough conditions on the trail, especially after a rain like the day we went on this run. Squishy, muddy, mucky puddles. Deeply cut trails carved out by horses hooves, areas of high erosion. Also this trail had several areas of running on large rocks, or even bedrock. Quite a variety of terrain.

These New Balance Minimi Trail Zero shoes took such good care of my feet, and when they got wet, three steps later I would forget they had gotten wet.

Then when I got home and cleaned them off, I noticed something. The padded cuff around the ankle was peeling off.

I took them back to the store I got them, they had no more in stock (moving on to cold weather merchandise I suppose.) They called NB who said they would be glad to give the store credit on their next order, and I settled for my money back.

I walked out shoeless.

I went to a local discount shoe store and found at less than half price a beautiful blue and black pair of NB Minimus Trail Zero running shoes. In Blue and Black, a color scheme I would like much more than my "Road Stripe Yellow" ones. They were in my size. I picked them up and looked at the cuff around the ankle. It was peeling off.

Today I saw another pair at Gander Mountain. I looked at the cuff around the ankle. I rubbed it gently with my thumb and it peeled off.

New Balance, please fix this problem, this is a wonderful minimal shoe, but I don't want to buy an expensive shoe that I then half to repair with gear tape before I can run in it.

Natural Colors

I prefer clothes and shoes in colors that don't stand out. I like to blend in. I also like clearance prices so I don't always get the color I want. When I got these shoes I thought I'd never find a place in which they blended in with the natural world.

Well played mother nature, well played.

Minimalist Shoes = Fewer Injuries?

Run lightly in those
 foot gloves!

So according to this article from Runner's World and the studies cited therein, Minimally shod runners are reporting injuries at less than one-third the rate of those wearing more supportive/cushioned/built up shoes. There are two important things I would like to point out about the study. The injury rates were self reported, and the study took out reports from those who had recently changed their shoe type or foot strike.

The self reported part of the study can cause some problems. There are some barefoot and nearly barefoot runners who are fanatic out there and are simply less likely to admit to injuries. I don't think that there are enough to account for the huge difference in injury rates. (46.7% vs. 13.7%) It could even be possible that the number of false reports could be made up for by the number of minimalist/barefoot runners who swear that they forefoot strike when they still heel strike, so the denialists could send the numbers either way. Therein lies the problem with self reported studies. The other study in the story was a more controlled study. In this one, forefoot strikers were only half as likely to get injured as the heel strikers. 

Why would they remove those who had recently changed their running habits? Simple, changing running style or changing shoes too abruptly can lead to injuries. For a long time, my wife got injured every time she bought new shoes. To digress a little bit, I think the real reason they say to change your running shoes every 300-400 miles is not that your old beaten up shoes with 894 miles on them are no longer good for your foot, but that changing from them to some that are still fully cushioned and supportive is too much of an abrupt change. Back on topic, it makes sense that they eliminated the runners who were in transition from the numbers.

This leads me to another question.

Why?

Why are we seeing lower injury rates among minimally shod runners? Changing your shoes for a foot glove or moccasin is not a magical cure all. As a matter of fact, if you are not careful it could be bad for you. The key is in running smarter. In my casual, non-scientific observations I have found that there is a group of people who start running and don't put too much thinking into it. They learn just enough to know that they need to go to a running store and get fitted for shoes that will correct their pronation or supination and they go and get shoes and promise to change them every 300 miles and they go out and run. If they get injured, they look for a shoe that supports or controls or cushions more. Kudos to those guys for getting out there and getting on their feet and taking control of their fitness, but I sure hope they will find a fix for injuries. Minimalist runners, on the other hand, seem to be more careful about what they do. They learn about barefoot running, they read lots of articles, they study running form, they transition into their new shoes/habits and they run more carefully. The ones who don't do this in their transition get injured and then switch back to supportive shoes.

So the difference may very well be in running smarter. Can one run smart in those high heeled running shoes? I guess so, but the more heel there is in the shoe, the more likely the heel is what will hit first, and studies are showing that heel strikers are suffering more.

Run smart everybody.

Is Nearly Barefoot Running Bad?

Saying "Nearly barefoot running is bad for you," or, "Barefoot running is bad for you," or  "Running is bad for you," is like saying fire is bad. It all really depends on how you use it. My preference for running is to wear minimal shoes (unfortunately often called "barefoot shoes"). I wear shoes that give as little cushion and support as I can handle, and rarely go barefoot. When I started running (not long ago) in November of 2010, I just ran in the shoes I had. I had to deal with hip pain and knee pain, but if I did certain stretches I could alleviate those aches. When I started wearing Vibram Fivefingers I stopped having those issues. Personally when I switched shoes, my running form changed instantly. Unfortunately it doesn't work that way for everybody, or even most people. As it turns out, lots of people switch to minimal shoes, or even switch to barefoot running, then go right on slamming their heels into the ground. The only difference is that now they don't have cushioning under their heels to protect them from the impact. That is bad for you.

As a matter of fact, even with cushioned shoes, slamming your heel into the ground is bad for you.

If you run barefoot, pay attention to what your feet are doing. Find the lightest, quietest landing you can and listen to your feet. If it hurts, change what you are doing. 

The problem with being nearly barefoot is that whatever shoes you have on, no matter how minimal, they shield your feet from the ground. They dull the sensitivity of the feet. (That is what shoes were designed for after all.) Dulling the sensitivity of the feet in any way limits the feedback you get and allows you to continue making mistakes in your running form. 

So whatever shoes you are wearing, do your homework, learn about running form, practice safe footfalls, and of course, run like a ninja.

Barefoot Running Form: Run Like a Ninja

If you google "running form" or "barefoot running form" you will see that it a pretty heavily discussed topic lately. Here is my two cents.

I had my young kung fu students doing some short fast (they all define fast differently) runs and on the first run down the gym floor they sounded like a hailstorm. I cringed at the thought of bruised heels and sore knees and stopped them.

For the next run I told them we were going to do the same run, except they were to run like ninjas.

I told them I wanted them to run silently. I wanted them to not make a sound.

I told them, "When I say go. . . Run like a ninja!"

They got in their starting positions and narrowed their eyes. They got quiet, there was no more chatter.

"GO!"

Rather than the sound of thunderous hooves I heard the sound on ninja feet. Some of them really got into it and squatted low as they run.

I don't advocate a low squat for running form, but I do recommend running like a ninja.

Run quietly, almost sneakily, to run quietly you must lessen the impact of your feet. It is hard sometimes to think about the position your knees, hips, arms, feet, and upper body should be in. I discovered, however, that for some people, telling them to run quietly corrects a lot of running form issues.

So, try it for a short run (as any changes to running form should be done gradually).
Run like a ninja.

Katana optional.